Le Bily Kun pour l’ambiance? J’irai cette fin de semaine. :-)

Absolutely, and learning and language and reserving its use for those times when it can be a useful tool is a very smart thing to do. But the hybrid franglais slang that many young Quebecois speak amongst themselves strikes me as less of an exercise in expanding one’s access to the world and more of an esthetic choice.

Now, I don’t care one way or the other what language two individuals speak between each other, but if you are someone who believes that the road to the assimilation of the Quebecois runs through Franglais as a common social language, then you’ll need to talk to your own people about that. This is one rare cases where the anglos aren’t to blame.

You might add another factor to that :
French kids don’t only learn and use English because it sounds cool. They also do it because it gives them more access to the World that surrounds them, both local and global.

I know, as a kid, I longed to learn English because I was aware that there was an English-speaking world that was closed-up to me : Not only on the TV and radio, but also nearby, whenever I’d meet English-speaking kids in Montreal, in the Eastern-townships, and while travelling to Ontario or New-Brunswick with my family.

What I thought “cool” was the idea of getting to know them.
And what I find definitely “uncool” is when I realize how little interest English kids have in counterpart.

The kids in “Éloge du Joual” talk about this. They retell how they are constantly told to speak English, even by Anglo kids who have learned French, or how they will be the targets of comments such as “Don’t mind him : He’s French…“.
And I see it everyday in the school where I work, where kids (as much as their parents) never fail to demonstrate a dismaying ignorance of Quebec culture — the place where they were born and where they live ! –, all the while greeting their French classes with « French is useless anyway ! » comments.

Not all of them have this attitude. Only about 9 in 10.

It has it’s roots in mostly immigrant frequented schools and neighbourhoods, but I hear it more and more in professional and « French-Canadian » circles.”

Personally, I disagree. I’ve found that there are two kinds of Franglais spoken, one by anglos who’s command of French is poor so they throw in an english word wherever they don’t know the french equivalent. I wouldn’t call this a new trend in any way, its merely just 2nd language french.

The other, in my experience, is spoken mainly by young pur laines. I don’t get the impression that they are doing it out of a reluctance to accept french as a common language, I think they just think it sounds cool. Personally, all my francized allophone friends put the effort in to distinguish between French and English and generally avoid Franglais. I try to do the same myself.

Non, je suis québécois.

“Do you think any kind of coalition between Franco-Ontarians, Québécois and Acadians is still possible ?
I know some sociologists used to predict that would happen if Quebec ever broke out : That we would eventually be joined in by other French-Canadians.

I may be a naive romantic, but I’d be willing to militate for that.”

Je crois comprendre que tu es Acadien. Il est déchirant pour un franco-canadien de souhaiter voir le Québec utiliser les moyens de protéger la langue française d’une part et d’autre part craindre qu’il réussisse à s’affranchir définitivement du Canada.

Les plus ardents défenseurs du français sont majoritairement souverainistes. Et crois-moi, il est aussi troublant pour les souverainistes de devoir abandonner leurs frères francophones du Canada.

En 1979, le gouvernement de René Lévesque, rendait public un livre blanc expliquant son projet de souveraineté-association à être soumis au referendum de mai 80. Voici ce qu’il proposait à l’article 215:
”
c) Communautés francophones
et acadiennes du Canada
215.Le gouvernement du Québec propose
aux gouvernements des autres provinces
qui souhaiteraient, tout comme lui, une
accessibilité élargie à l’enseignement
dans la langue de la minorité, de concevoir
des ententes de réciprocité à cette
fin. Le Québec est notamment disposé
à conclure des accords qui prévoiraient
l’accès à l’école anglaise aux
citoyens anglophones des autres provinces
venant s’établir au Québec, et
ce, suivant les modalités qui s’appliquent
aux anglophones du Québec247.”

On appelait ça les ententes de réciprocité. C’est une idée qui mérite qu’on s’en souvienne.